VOTING IN LOCKSTEP IS NOW A GOOD THING? (Not According to SOME Democrats in Congress…)

~~By Kenosha Marge

We just get used to hearing from the left about how too-too terrible it is when the right tries to muzzle and/or oust it’s “moderates’, aka too liberal members. Those evil GOPers don’t want/allow dissenting voices in their party. Big Tent? More like little pup tent. Gives us more reason to hate them.

Some sort of tent...

Some sort of tent...

So now we appear superior while welcoming (yuck) Snarlin’ Arlen Specter over to our side. Because of course he was too moderate for those evil rat-bastards on the right. Ignore the fact that he knew he couldn’t get re-elected by the voters of his state. So after being promised all sorts of lovely baubles he turned to the light. Hallelujah!

Meanwhile when some recalcitrant Democrats dig their heels in it isn’t seen as being moderate. They’re ignoble “conservative” Democrats from evil conservative districts and states. They must be expunged. Or whipped into line. Threatened even.

Under no circumstances are they to show any sign of individuality or be given the right to think for themselves. Or vote the way their constituents want them to vote. Mercy me no. What an idea!

What happened to the frenzy about those moronic Republicans that voted in lockstep with their leadership and White House? Wasn’t that supposed to be a really bad thing? What’s different now? Oh right, the Democrats are in the majority, a Faux-Democrat is in the White House and now lockstep voting is de riguer.

Locksteppers...

Locksteppers...

I just can’t seem to get the whole double standard, hypocrite thing right. It’s not as if as a normal human being I haven’t been guilty of being a hypocrite or of using a double standard. There is no halo above my head and I am ashamed when someone points out my hypocrisy. And therein lies the difference because I am ashamed.

The difference between normal human beings and politicians is that we normals take offense when people call us names and insult our families.

We normals are ashamed when caught out in some wrongdoing. They are just ashamed they got caught.

We normals are ashamed when we’re caught being hypocrites. Hypocrisy is part and parcel of their DNA.

Politicians like to pretend that the drivel they spew contains words of wisdom. They also like to ignore the fact those words are a complete contradiction of what they formerly said. Evidently to them this is of no consequence.

You often read that politicians decide to ride out a crap-storm because they believe they can depend on the public’s well-known short memory. They also count on the fact that the media is usually too busy with dead rock stars, live half naked young women, and kissing the buttocks of whatever party is in power to bother with actual reporting on who said what and when.

So now the Democratic Party seems intent on eating and beating up on it’s own:

DNC targeting centrist Dems in health ads

And then there are those damn Blue Dog Democrats which must be spayed and/or neutered.

A Blue Dog...

A Blue Dog...

Cause we like lockstep voting now.

Flip Flopping?

Flip Flopping?

Yellow Dog Democrats anyone? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_dog_Democrat

A Yellow Dog...

A Yellow Dog...

Oh, for the record, here are the Blue Dogs as listed at the Blue Dog Coalition site if you want to know more…That is,  instead of just taking the word of some one ranting about how evil they are and how they must be punished for their un-lockstep ways…

Blue Dog Leadership Team

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Administration
Rep. Baron Hill (IN-09), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Policy
Rep. Charlie Melancon (LA-03), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Communications
Rep. Heath Shuler (NC-11), Blue Dog Whip

Blue Dog Members

Altmire, Jason (PA-04)
Arcuri, Mike (NY-24)
Baca, Joe (CA-43)
Barrow, John (GA-12)
Berry, Marion (AR-01)
Bishop, Sanford (GA-02)
Boren, Dan (OK-02)
Boswell, Leonard (IA-03)
Boyd, Allen (FL-02)
Bright, Bobby (AL-02)
Cardoza, Dennis (CA-18)
Carney, Christopher (PA-10)
Chandler, Ben (KY-06)
Childers, Travis (MS-01)
Cooper, Jim (TN-05)
Costa, Jim (CA-20)
Cuellar, Henry (TX-28)
Dahlkemper, Kathy (PA-03)
Davis, Lincoln (TN-04)
Donnelly, Joe (IN-02)
Ellsworth, Brad (IN-08)
Giffords, Gabrielle (AZ-08)
Gordon, Bart (TN-06)
Griffith, Parker (AL-05)
Harman, Jane (CA-36)
Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie (SD)
Hill, Baron (IN-09)
Holden, Tim (PA-17)
Kratovil, Jr., Frank (MD-01)
McIntyre, Mike (NC-07)
Marshall, Jim (GA-03)
Matheson, Jim (UT-02)
Melancon, Charlie (LA-03)
Michaud, Mike (ME-02)
Minnick, Walt (ID-01)
Mitchell, Harry (AZ-05)
Moore, Dennis (KS-03)
Murphy, Patrick (PA-08)
Nye, Glenn (VA-02)
Peterson, Collin (MN-07)
Pomeroy, Earl (ND)
Ross, Mike (AR-04)
Salazar, John (CO-03)
Sanchez, Loretta (CA-47)
Schiff, Adam (CA-29)
Scott, David (GA-13)
Shuler, Heath (NC-11)
Space, Zack (OH-18)
Tanner, John (TN-08)
Taylor, Gene (MS-04)
Thompson, Mike (CA-01)
Wilson, Charles (OH-06)

The Past Week: March 29-April 4, 2009 (Hugo Chavez Takes Over Food Producers, Sounds Off on the G-20; A Government Bailout Special; “The Reluctant Ones”

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

As the  G-20 circus brought out the whole gang in London, Hugo Chavez was doing his thing in Iran.

Chavez had this to say about the G-20 summit:

Venezuela’s Chavez: Capitalism Must End

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday ridiculed the G-20 summit’s attempts to deal with the global financial meltdown, saying that capitalism is in crisis and must end. Chavez criticized the G-20 nations’ pledges of more than a trillion dollars for lending to struggling countries at Thursday’s summit in London, calling it “the same medicine that’s killing the patient—a trillion dollars … more money for a bottomless pit.”

SNIP

The IMF and the World Bank are “tools of imperialism” and must be eliminated, Chavez said.

MORE

Well, he has a point…But does this mean that he’s no longer Obama’s “best buddy” since Obama is part of the Obama Borg?

Meanwhile, a couple of weeks ago, Chavez took steps to deal with Venezuela’s economy during this global economic crisis:

Chavez trims budget, adds debt to counter crisis

(SNIP)

Chavez, who won a referendum last month allowing him to stay in office as long as he keeps winning elections, is popular for spending oil revenues on health and education programs for the poor majority.

During 10 years in office he has nationalized much of Venezuela’s economy including major oil projects as part of his drive to build a socialist state.

On Saturday, he cut the 2009 budget by 6.7 percent to $72 billion, raised the minimum wage 20 percent and increased planned government financing to $16 billion from $5.6 billion. And he increased a sales tax to 12 percent from 9 percent.

(SNIP)

Economist Luis Vicente Leon described the package of measures as moderate but said the government was gambling crude prices would recover later this year.

“These are not truly deep measures, they don’t attack the fundamental problems of the economy,” Leon told Reuters.

Faced with Latin America’s highest inflation, Chavez has in recent weeks increased pressure on business to lower prices by taking over farms and rice mills and threatening to nationalize the country’s top private employer, which makes food and beer.

What do you think of that last part?  When does Obama go after the food supply?

***

The next two items courtesy Kenosha Marge:

johndeer-bailout

***

A couple of weeks ago we learned that Evan Bayh has put together a group of “pragmantic Democrats.”  Then there are the Blue Dogs:

Centrist Dems: Dogged If They Do, Dogged If They Don’t

By Froma Harrop

There’s trouble around the Democratic campfire. The party has the White House and solid congressional majorities. But what it doesn’t have is everyone on the same page, strumming the same chords, singing the same tune.

Liberals who kept the fires burning during the long Republican reign now fear that moderate Blue Dog Democrats will thwart their much-delayed dreams. Elected from purplish parts of America, the Blue Dogs are fiscal conservatives who regard expensive new programs with a wary eye.

What’s a liberal to do? First, recognize that the Blue Dogs are the reason Democrats have such nice majorities. They are why the dreams are even on the menu. Second, concede that the Reluctant Ones have a point.

(MORE)

“The Reluctant Ones”…has a certain ring to it, yes?

***

THE PAST WEEK

*By American Lassie

Saturday Sanity: The Antidote to the Madness (April 4, 2009) Spring Winds; Squirrel Wars; Bees Invade Feeder; Wounded Butterfly; Sunrise Over the Organs; Slick Lounges Around

Non-Stop Campaigning Here in NM-CD2 By Bill Richardson’s Hand-Picked Freshman Rep Harry Teague, Who’s Splitting His Votes Pro/Con on Obama Policies

Iowa Gone Wild With Nazi Reference at Public Hearing (Listen to the Audio) as New Yorkers in CD-20 Test Obama’s Popularity

Canada Follows the U.S. Terms for GM/Chrysler; Harper Still Worrying About the “Eased” ‘Buy-American’ Clause in Stimulus Package

Closing Out Women’s History Month With Dr. Mary Schweitzer, Ground-Breaking Molecular Paleontologist, and a Special T. Rex

*China, the Treasury, and Real Estate (As in the New World Trade Center); Cross-Pollination:The New America Foundation/Council of Foreign Relations

The Past Week: March 22-28, 2009 (A Split in Russian Political Forces as Putin Weakens; The Voice of Korea, North Korean Propaganda Outlet; G-20 Protests Begin; A Prescient Wish for a Bush Successor ca. 2006; X-Rated Google Earth)

IS THE TIDE TURNING? 10 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP

~~By Grail Guardian

Something strange has been happening since the Vice Presidential Debate last Thursday. I first noticed it as I watched the debate with my Dad. He follows what’s going on (like most people his age) but gets most of his news from the MSM (thankfully, he watches Fox a lot, so he gets some reality). Not a dyed-in-the-wool political junkie at all, he’s learned most of what he knows about Obama from me. So I was a bit surprised as we watched and he began to call Biden out on his BS. In my head I was yelling “Way to go, Dad!” In real time, I agreed with him and began to call out a few things he missed. I left afterwards feeling pretty good about the debate since a non-political guy like my father had seen through the crap.

On Friday and Saturday, I began to notice that people I spoke with fell into 1 of 2 categories: they felt that Palin had won the debate and the media was wrong in deriding her victory OR they were repeating the MSM line about why Palin hadn’t really done that well. But there are 2 important things of note here. Just about everyone I spoke with had actually watched the debate in its entirety (including my 92 year old great aunt), and those that fell into category 2 (regurgitating the MSM bull) were very easily convinced that Palin really did well. It took almost no effort on my part to get them to agree that her performance was actually better than Biden’s; obviously they had felt that way when they watched it, but were simply spitting back what they’d heard afterwards so they wouldn’t appear uninformed. Once they knew someone agreed with them, they abandoned the groupthink stance practically at once and praised Palin’s performance.

Fast forward to this afternoon when, driving on a local expressway, I spotted something unusual. It was one of those hand-lettered sheet signs hanging from an overpass. I don’t normally see a lot of the homemade variety here (the City hangs their official festival announcements and reminders to change the batteries in your smoke alarms, but not many protest signs), and I was rather surprised to see that the sign was demanding that there be “No Bailout.” I noted it, and the fact that at least 1 person was riled up enough about the “Rescue” bill to create and hang a sign (there was some artwork on it that was rather well done) on a busy overpass. There must have been some serious anger involved, as this is not an easy task and the sign was well anchored and not fluttering in the wind.

This was all kind of rolling around aimlessly in my brain for a day or so before I spotted this piece at Not Your Sweetie about calling Obama on his bs on the new $ trillion bailout. In it, she quotes a post called Obama Betrays the Middle Class: Votes for “Bail out the Rich Act” from one of the folks over at Fire Dog Lake, one of the progressive blogs that drank the Kool Aid early on. I’ll let you check out the links for all the details, but here’s a quote from author Ian Welsh I couldn’t resist:

I assume he’s [Obama] willing to give up the 700 billion for the near dictatorial power over the US economy which is still embedded in the bill, power which he will wield through his Treasury Secretary. Or maybe, encouraged by his economic advisers, almost all of whom were amongst the architects and cheerleaders of the policies which made this crisis occur, he really believes that bailing out the rich with middle class money is how the country has to operate. After all, some people are important and some people aren’t, and since the middle class can vote for him or for a man who has made himself into a national joke with Sarah Palin as the punch line, what are they going to do?

As if that wasn’t juicy enough, the comments aren’t much more optimistic. For instance, poster MsAnnaNOLA said:

He will get what he deserves. If Paulson and gang are stealing this money, and all indications are that they are:

This could be the nail in the Dems coffin.

I am talking 3rd party all the way.

What will the Dems have to offer us after this? Seriously?

Answer: Nothing.

Read next this piece by Jake Tapper who seems to think that the October dogs are about to bite Obama’s backside with the story of his shady associates like Rezko and Ayers, then this one by Uppity Woman which supports that the MSM is starting to talk about Ayers. Add to these the plethora of links to ACORN problems on You Tube and across the Blogosphere (here and here and here and here and so on) and this excellent article Understanding Obama: The Making of a Fuehrer on Obama’s mental state and massive Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and pretty soon you can’t ignore it all.

So I started to ponder, and all these random events started to come together. If America is starting to see through the MSM’s crazy con job (all they need is a little encouragement and they’re practically PUMAs), and they are pissed off enough about this feeding frenzy known as the Wall Street bailout (even those that seem resigned to it being a necessary evil are still mad, and the adding of pork to get Republican votes was like poking a hornet’s nest), and they are blaming Obama for the bill (I think he’ll be regretting taking credit for someone else’s work this time – be sure you read the post from Fire Dog Lake about how Obama owns this bill) then you really need to wonder: Is it possible that Obama’s house of cards is starting to implode?

That’s when it hit me: We are about to break through. The brass ring (America) is ours for the taking (or keeping) if we’re just willing to do a few things:

1. Talk to anyone and everyone about the shoddy and unacceptable state of the media in this country. This seems to be something everyone is starting to agree on, and needs to be reinforced in peoples’ minds as frequently as possible. Talk about CNN and MSNBC being so over the top that you can’t believe anything they say anymore, even if it’s not about the election. After they lied about an election as important as this, who knows what else they lie about?

2. Express how you can’t understand why they’re saying Palin didn’t win the debate. If they watched (and I’ll bet they did) they know what happened. They saw it first-hand and unedited. Talk up how the Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric interviews were edited to make Palin look bad, but obviously when she had the eyes of the world upon her and every network rolling tape she stood up to the incredible scrutiny quite well and didn’t have to lie outright 14 times like Biden did.

3. Relate the moment you personally felt Palin won the debate. Many say it was when she asked Ifill if they could go back to talk about Afghanistan, but for me it was when she said to Biden that she wasn’t going to answer the way he wanted her to or the way the moderator wanted her to, but she was going to speak directly to the American people; game, set, match for me.

4. Redirect the attention back from Palin to Obama, especially on the experience issue. The Obama campaign has actually managed to divert America’s attention away from the fact that he hasn’t done anything prior to running for POTUS.

5. Focus on the bailout bill and how Obama owns it, but we’re going to be stuck paying for it. Point out that it’s been the Democrats that forced this mess down our throats after people like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and Jimmy Carter were responsible for creating it and ignoring it until it exploded. And be sure to let them know that it’s the Democrats that are supporting George W. Bush! Things aren’t right in Oz once the Wicked Witch becomes the heroine and the Wizard becomes the bad guy.

6. Remind people that we sent the Democrats to Congress with a majority and a mandate in 2006, and they haven’t done a damned thing! They refused to impeach Bush, haven’t done anything to end the war in Iraq, and pretended nothing was wrong on Wall Street so we’d all continue to invest our life savings into GSE’s like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while their former chairs walked away with tens of millions of dollars and left us with no savings and the 700 billion dollar check. Point out that when House Republicans voted against the bill, the Dems added plenty of pork in order to entice the naysayers to the taxpayer funded trough.

7. Point out that Obama is now using the Wall Street Crisis to back out of any campaign promises he may have made (or “put them on hold” as the campaign calls it). He’s using the massive feeding of the political pigs at the trough to say no to Universal Healthcare, Education reforms, Alternative Energy, and just about anything else he vowed to do. Where’s the change in that?

8. Discuss ACORN and all the instances of voter fraud being reported across the country. Be liberal with the You Tube videos, and point out that ACORN was included in Obama’s original bailout bill (earmarked to get 20% of any profits, even if the taxpayers were still paying). Bring up ACORN’s ties to Saul Alinsky and Cloward-Piven and how the far left wants America to become a Socialist state, and this bailout is just one more step in that direction.

9. Stress that a McCain presidency will last only 4 years. He will not be re-elected, and he does not wish to run for a second term. America can handle 4 years of a moderate McCain Administration with Congress as a counter-balance. No laws get passed without Congress, no Supreme Court judges get appointed without the Senate’s approval, and as Senator Obama is so fond of pointing out – no wars get started without Congress’ say so. We can all tread water for 4 years as long as Bush is out and the country is safe.

10. Discuss how many Centrist Democrats that may have been thinking about voting for Cynthia McKinney or Ralph Nader as a protest vote against both of the major parties are now saying they just cannot afford to waste their votes; this election is too important to America and the world.

If we can keep letting friends and neighbors know that there’s no shame in seeing the light now, as long as they’ve seen it before it’s too late, we can help them to accept that this election is no longer about Hope or Change or ending the Bush regime. It’s about saving America, and we must all put our country above politics and parties. It’s OK to be a Republican for a day (or even for 5 minutes inside the voting booth). Americans need to know that they are not alone; we’ve all been hoodwinked and bamboozled. By the media, by George W. Bush, by the Democratic and Republican Parties, by Wall Street, and by our own unwillingness to take a long hard look at ourselves and what we’ve allowed our political process to become.

This is a time for change, but not some empty slogan or political promise. Change must be what we the people deliver to the electoral system of the United States. That is our only Hope.